Participants: Viewers

Dale Anderson has been a Principal Investigator at the Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute since 1993. His research has focused on microbial ecosystems in extreme environments including areas of the Arctic, Antarctic, Atacama Desert, Death Valley and Siberia. Dale’s research interests are with the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe and he has been involved with NASA’s Exobiology and Astrobiology programs since the mid 1980’s. He is interested in locating, characterizing and understanding environments where physical and chemical conditions approach or exceed the tolerances for life. This includes biogeochemical processes occurring in polar lakes, oceans, and springs, or in lithic environments such as sandstones, or retrogressive thaw slumps harbouring massive ground ice. Of particular interest are the physical controls and ecological impacts that perennial ice-covers and thick continuous permafrost have on the structure and function of microbial ecosystems.

Eamonn Ansbro, M.Ast, M.Phil, PhD, FRAS, is an astronomer and Director of Kingsland Observatory in Ireland which is involved in planetary research, SETI and instrumentation. Kingsland Observatory carries out surveys for minor planets in the outer Solar System and designs and develops instrumentation for a wide range of applications in astronomy and terrestrial research. He has a number patents in instrumentation and has published many scientific papers.SETI Kingsland has been involved in experimenting and developing new communications system within quantum superluminal communications. This has evolved at different stages in this research for the past 25 years. These new tools may eventually be complimentary to radio/microwave SETI.

Megan Ansdell is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center for Integrative Planetary Science (CIPS) at UC Berkeley, where she studies the formation of planetary systems. She obtained her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Hawaii in 2017. Previously, she obtained a Masters in International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University, where she specialized in Space Policy and focused on issues such as language protocols for international human spaceflight and international cooperation in global space exploration programs.

Carl L. DeVitois an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona.

Guillaume Dumasis a neuroscientist working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and a collaborator of COGITO, a project that sends brain waves into space.

Michael Garrett (Director, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics)

Andrew Gordon (Jodrell Bank, The University of Manchester)

Claudio Grimaldi is a guest scientist at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a physicist in condensed and soft matter theory.

Claire Marie Guimond, Institute for Research on Exoplants (McGill University). Claire will soon hold an MSc from McGill University in Earth & Planetary Sciences. Her research interests include the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets. While her academic background is rooted in physical sciences, she is currently figuring out how to combine this with an anthropological context on the search for extraterrestrial life.

Ellie Kitanidisis a physics PhD student at UC Berkeley, studying cosmology. She has a passion for AI and linguistics, and is excited to learn how these fields intersect with astrophysics in searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Jacob Haqq-Misra is a research scientist at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. His areas of focus include planetary habitability, atmospheric dynamics, environmental ethics, and extraterrestrial life. He completed his Ph.D. in meteorology and astrobiology (2010) and a postdoctoral fellowship in climate ethics. Jacob serves as a contributing editor for EARTH magazine, on the advisory council of METI International, and on the IAA SETI Permanent Committee.

Denise Herzingis Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project, focusing on cracking the code of dolphin language. She is an affiliate assistant professor in Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee. She authors papers on dolphin biology and the use of AI in recognizing communication signals, and also writes about the implications for SETI of studying a nonhuman species on Earth.

Diego Jimenez holds an MSc in Space Management from the International Space University. He works in a European strategic design firm called Designit as senior business designer. He has been an space entrepreneur and worked on startups in remote sensing and artificial intelligence. He was an intern in NASA Ames in the Space Portal office. Currently, Diego is working on neural nets for exoplanet detection.

Franck Marchisis senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar. He dedicates most of his energy to instruments capable of imaging and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets and detection g transient events through all-sky surveys by being involved in education, public outreach, technology, and scientific investigations related to those ambitious projects both in the United States and in Europe.

Mika McKinnon is a geophysicist, disaster researcher, and science communicator. She consults in the film industry helping create more plausible fiction, and works with policy makers to support science-driven decision making for disaster risk reduction.

Brian McConnell

Michael Medfordis a 3rd year graduate student pursuing a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of California Berkeley, having received a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University in 2011 in both physics and theatre. After spending several years pursuing a career as a physics teacher and actor in Chicago, he came back to graduate school to develop a deeper understanding of the intricate workings of the Universe. Currently he is developing a computational method for executing the largest optical search for Planet Nine yet executed, and beginning work on finding stellar mass blackholes via microlensing using the Zwicky Transient Facility. That joy he feels in developing his astrophysical understanding is only made stronger by sharing that enthusiasm as a science communicator.

Stelio Montebugnoli (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica)

Manasvi Lingam (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Jader Monari (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica)

Kai Staatsis a filmmaker, writer, visiting scientist at LIGO, and project lead on a model of a Mars colony at ASU SESE.

Ned Tsui just graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.A. in astrophysics.

Margaret Turnbull

Lucianne Walkowiczis the Baruch S. Blumberg Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, and an Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. She studies the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability as a host for alien life, and how to use advanced computing to discover unusual events in large astronomical data sets. Walkowicz is the founding director of the new LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, an initiative to provide astronomy graduate students with training in advanced computing, in preparation for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Walkowicz holds a BS in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University, and an MS and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Washington. Walkowicz is also a practicing artist, working in a variety of media from oil paint to sound.

Peter Watts is a former marine biologist and a current science-fiction author. His debut novel in the Rifters series, (Starfish) was a New York Times Notable Book, and his novel (Blindsight) has become a required text in undergraduate courses ranging from philosophy to neuroscience, and was a finalist for numerous North American genre awards. His shorter work, including Beyond the Rift, has received the Shirley Jackson, Hugo, and Aurora awards. Watts’s work is available in twenty languages and has been cited as inspirational to several popular video games. He lives in Toronto.

Jon Willis is an astronomer and astrobiologist based at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island. He combines his research into the properties of the Universe with popular science writing and scientific adventures around the globe. In 2016, he published “All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life” with Yale University Press.